


Things Can Only Get Better, Right?

by MaddieandChimney



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:54:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24821167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddieandChimney/pseuds/MaddieandChimney
Summary: The moment Chimney meets Maddie, he recognises her as the seventeen year old run away he once talked down from the ledge, eighteen years ago.“If you jump now, you’ll never give things a chance to get better. You’ll never know what could have been.”
Relationships: Maddie Buckley/Howie "Chimney" Han
Kudos: 18
Collections: Madney One-Shots





	Things Can Only Get Better, Right?

The moment he sees her, he’s taken back eighteen years. The sight in front of him is vastly different than the pale, too thin teenager he had once spoken to but those eyes… he’d recognise those big, brown, still sad eyes anywhere. He’s frozen, just for a second before he shakes it off, so certain she hasn’t recognised him when she holds out her hand and introduces herself as Maddie.

He had known her only as Olivia. Even though he had known that wasn’t her name, it was the only one she would give.

_“You’re a long way from home.”_

_“I don’t have a home.”_

He introduces himself as Chimney and they leave it at that. Perhaps if he had told her his real name, maybe she would have looked at him with some form of recognition. They had spoken for hours, it was only one night but it had had such a profound effect on his life, he kind of hoped that maybe, somehow, she had been the first person he had _changed_ something, anything for in some way.

Maybe it kind of hurt, more than a little.

Olivia – Maddie – he had held her life in his hands, moving to sit next to her on the edge of the roof with barely a moments hesitation. He had been twenty-three years old, trying to make up for years of bad decisions and putting the Lees through hell when he was a teenager. But he had never expected to literally be talking someone down from the edge. Truthfully, he had felt some sort of connection with this shell of a girl because he had been in the exact same position when he was her age.

Kevin had been the one to talk him down and he felt connected to him in a way he could never explain to another person. He supposed, or he had hoped, that he was that very real connection to her. That he had anchored her to the world in the same way Kevin had done for him, that she thought of him in her lowest moments as the one, kind person who cared enough about her to literally talk her down from the edge, just as his best friend – his brother – was for him.

_“If you jump now, you’ll never give things a chance to get better. You’ll never know what could have been.”_

Chimney finds himself watching her, biting down on his lip as he tries to decide whether he should say something. But really, what good would it do to remind a woman who’s so scared she needs security cameras in her own home, of one of the lowest moments in her life? And really, what kind of life had he saved her for? Beaten by her own husband, running for her life.

He supposes, at least she had a life to run for, a life he still felt partly responsible for even if she didn’t have a clue who he was. He could still remember the way she put her shaking hand in his, trusting him with her life and now she’s standing in front of him, thirty-five years old and somehow the sadness in her eyes is only intensified by the years of experience she now has because of him.

_“You don’t know that life will be better in ten years.”_

_“You don’t know that it’ll be any worse.”_

When she stands close enough to him that he can feel her breath on his neck, he tries not to act as though it has any effect on him, despite the way his own breath hitches and his fingers hover over the tablet for just a second. “Thank you, Howie.” She whispers when he hands it over and he knows he introduced himself as Chimney. His heart is thumping harder against his chest but he clears his throat, trying to ignore the way he can feel his cheeks heating up because she knows exactly who he is, “Beer?”

“Also kitchen. Fridge.”

“Clever.” He mumbles under his breath, scratching the back of his neck, taking one more look at her and then a slightly confused looking Buck before he follows Eddie into the kitchen.

_“Maybe I’ll thank you one day for you know… saving my life and all. Maybe.”_


End file.
